


sock puppet

by orphan_account



Category: Everyman HYBRID
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-11 09:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11711769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: it's obviously the dog he's had for the past four years. he just lost it once. now he's lost it again.





	sock puppet

          really, alex doesn't even have a name for that ... thing. it's a monster & it's evil, & that's all he really knows. when it comes to exactly what it is, or where it came from, or what it wants from him - he has no idea. there are so many unanswered questions he has, & so many questions he hasn't thought of but could never answer. he had never done anything to attract it or anger it, yet, he has become its target. its prey. it comes into his room at night & it whispers things to him, things that haven't happened yet but are going to happen. it leaves deep cuts on his arms with its ghostly claws & it flees with its garbled, ragged moans before al can a do a thing to it or a thing about it. & before all that, before it wakes him, it consistently makes a mess of his room. things go missing, others are broken, & he's pretty much given up on cleaning it because it doesn't even matter. the place will be destroyed again so soon. nothing really feels like it matters anymore; not as much as it used to, at least.

          it's okay, though. it's okay because he still has jeff, & his parents, & sparky. he thinks he has them all, anyway. only one of them is really there, but the other four seem just as real to him, because he sees & hears & feels them & he refuses to listen to any talk about them being dead. everything is okay, no one is dead. his dog sleeps next to him in bed every night, & he's taken to wrapping his arms around her, holding her close. she doesn't seem to mind - which is good. alex loves that. alex loves her, & really, she's there for him more than anyone else is. more than jeff is, for sure.

          on this particular night, sparky isn't in his arms, but she's resting on the bed next to him, as limp as a broken toy or an unworn article of clothing. al can hear her snore as the night goes on, & although it takes a while for him to fall asleep, he does get there. it does not last long, however.

          this has happened so many times that he's almost used to it, almost feels routine. almost. he's simply too human for that to truly become the case. he can hear its raspy breathing, right over him, freezing him up & sending chills down his spine like spiders crawling along his back. alex is already tensed because if it's going to hurt him again, now is its usual time. it isn't entirely feral, isn't like a total animal. it has strangely human rituals & it speaks to him & it knows things. he does know that it knows things, he just isn't sure what. he just looks into those pits of blackness in its horrifying head & he becomes aware of how pathetic & stupid he really is, relative to most things in this world, to mos things in this plane of existence. this time is different, however, because it isn't moving to attack him. it's just... there, & al is still far too afraid to move or turn or twist - mostly because of its close proximity to him.  _go away, go away, go away._

         when there is movement, it isn't towards him, & he assumes it's skipping him, going straight to knock some shit over before it flees. that's not what it does, though. it picks something up, then makes its way to the closet. it does this all without looking back. he waits for his heart rate to get a little slower, but it only starts pounding faster when he realizes what it was that was taken from him. to any other person, that was just a sock puppet. to most people, it was hardly even that. it was a just a sock. alex, however, is delusional & he hallucinates & that was his dog. that was sparky. the thing took sparky & carried her right out, & he hadn't done a thing to stop it. that's definitely enough to make him feel like a bad person. it's more than that, though, because the shock of loss is hitting him hard. he sits upright, posture rigid, staring at the closed doors, doors which he knows won't take him anywhere at all.

         & he starts screaming.

          "sparky! sparky! no, no, no!"

          alex forces himself into action, a blur of motion from under his blankets to the closet doors. they've always been hard to open, & they get stuck often, but he wrenches them open. he's hoping with every fiber of his being that she'll be there, unharmed & okay, just as unwilling to think of anything else as he is to realize that this isn't even his dog at all. it's an old sock, not even wearable, not even with a partner for a second foot. to al, however, that dog is very real, & very important to him. it isn't there, of course. she isn't there. he's lost sparky once again - even his defense mechanism has failed him. the closet holds no trace of anything, of a monster or of a struggle. there's no mess. it's just his bedroom closet, & saying there was a monster inside of it feels just as logical as it would if her were a little kid who thought he'd seen a shadow. & he falls on his knees, & he sobs. sobs & shouts out her name, cries it, not knowing if he expects to hear her respond or not. his brain can't handle loss right, it can't handle this right, & mental health that was already slipping like silky sand through his fingertips has sped up tenfold.

          none of this goes unheard, of course. he may see things that don't exist, see people who aren't there anymore, but he isn't entirely alone. jeffrey has been a rather neglectful brother recently, more focused on mourning his own losses & trying to figure shit out. very little of his attention is focused on alex, if any of it is at all. they're fine financially, & that's really the extent of his work as al's legal guardian & as the only family he really has left. he doesn't address the fact that things are going terribly, horribly wrong on someone else's end, internally & externally. maybe he doesn't see it. maybe he doesn't want to. it's impossible to tell.

          usually, these things happen quietly enough to be slept through, & jeff is a rather heavy sleeper anyways - especially so since losing his girlfriend. he does hear this, though. he hears it, & it pulls him out of his sleep, & he's immediately alarmed. his brother is yelling in the other room, after all. he could be in danger. alex could be in danger, & there's a difference between being distant & letting someone get hurt without intervention. someone he's supposed to protect.

          once he arrives in his younger brother's room, standing in the doorway & turning on the lights, what he sees is one part confusing & one part heartbreaking. al is kneeling in front of his closet, shoulders shaking with his sobs, like he's suddenly been thrown into mourning. like he just lost someone near & dear to him. (it's good to know he's capable of something other than denial, but this doesn't seem right, doesn't seem like it would just happen. what caused it, then?) "...alex?"

          when he gets no response, jeff get closer, lowers himself onto the floor so he can try to get al's attention. the younger quiets, stares glassy-eyed into the shadows of the closet before them. there's nothing in there, nothing to see or nothing to be seen. something must have taken place before all that yelling, & he can't help unless he knows what it was. so, he needs to ask. he needs to be told. then, maybe, just maybe, he can do his job for the first time since all this happened - he can try acting like al's brother once again. like they're family. because seeing people that aren't there & hearing phantom voices; that isn't family enough to be any help. in fact, it's only harmful, & it's no healthy defense mechanism. he should never have let it get this far. right now, he just wants to know _what's wrong._ "alex. alex, what happened? alex?"

          "i-it took her," al whispers, his voice hoarse from the unholy noise he'd made minutes before. he sounds like he's still in shock, but he also sounds defeated. who wouldn't be? he's been through a lot, & he's done it all on his own. no one else knows what it's like for him, & no one else is there to try to comfort him. no one who really exists, at least. no one who's really alive. (in truth, maybe he should be blaming jeffrey for his suffering. even if he were aware of everything, he couldn't do that. he couldn't do that. he couldn't-) "it took her!"

          of course, it did take her, one time. that wasn't just now, though. that had been weeks ago. sparky has been dead for over a month, & alex seems to think she was just abducted, right from this room, on this very night. the elder brother sighs & places a hand on the other's shoulder, takes a breath. but before he can get any words out, he's trapped in a tight, desperate squeeze that definitely takes him by surprise, considering he'd never seen the other really enjoying any physical contact with anyone at all. alex's frame shakes with his sobs as he clings on, mumbling erratic nonsense about his dog & his parents & the thing that haunts him & god knows what else, as if he's losing his mind. all jeff can do is try to return the embrace, rub his back, & reassure him. tell him he's going to be okay, even though that's a lie & maybe neither of them will ever be okay again. not anymore.

          he considers explaining to al, once again, that sparky has been dead. that she's gone, & so are their parents. but that doesn't feel right, because the atmosphere already feels so heavy & his brother has been through enough for one night. he already feels limp & tired in jeff's arms, he doesn't resist when he's helped to his feet & walked back to his bed. the boy collapses onto his mattress, shaking & whimpering so, so softly. the blanket is pulled over his body, so he doesn't get too chilly while he tries to sleep. despite everything, he has too sleep. the bags under his eyes are heavier than even jeff's. one last time, he whispers, just barely audible- "it took her."

          "please go back to sleep, alex. you'll feel better tomorrow." he steps back & al's breathing evens out not long after, falling into a deep, dreamless sleep. it isn't fair that he has to do this, that he has to deal with this. it isn't fair that he has to grow up with such a messed up life, a messed up mentality. it isn't fair that no one can help him. he watches vigilantly for some time, afraid his brother will be the next to go, & ultimately decides everything is going to be alright tonight. everything is going to be alright, just this once.

          jeff wishes he could save his little brother.


End file.
